Hero
by Iroja
Summary: "Your their, our and my hero." These words don't make Souji happy.


**Author's note: This was unavoidable, I just had to write Souji/Yosuke 'Cause Yosuke's the best bro I have ever seen. Anyway, this was inspired by a small scene and one line of the movie 'Freedom writers'. My sister watched it and I was in the room when that scene came, I immediately began to write this in my brain.**

**Warnings: character death and shounen-ai (boyxboy)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 4 or any character that is mentioned, I also do not own Freedom writers in case you were wondering.**

Souji was the only one who knew what Yosuke's shadow was like. He wasn't going to tell them what it said or what it turned into, that was between him and Yosuke, and Teddie, but the bear didn't know what the shadow meant with everything it said, he just knew that Yosuke was horrified by it.

One of the things that Yosuke didn't want to admit was that he wanted to be a hero. Yosuke was known as the Junes kid or the prince of Junes. He wanted to be a hero so he could tell himself that he was more than just someone from Junes.

Souji knew that this part was the only part of his shadow that Yosuke still didn't accept.

He was proved right when they came back from training one day. Yosuke was rubbing his arm, he had a particularly bad bruise this time and Yukiko didn't had enough power to heal him, so they decided to wait for the next day.

Yosuke was staying over at Souji's house for the night. When they arrived at the house, they saw that Nanako was watching TV before she greeted them with a smile. Dojima was still working. They greeted her and went upstairs.

"Are you alright?" Souji asked and Yosuke nodded, but he clenched his teeth when he rolled his sleeve up. The bruise had turned purple and it hurt when he just looked at it. Souji seemed to agree with Yosuke on that.

"I'm sorry," Souji said and when Yosuke didn't interrupt him he continued: "if only I wasn't hurt that much, we could heal you."

It was true. The shadows had only targeted Souji and eventually he almost passed out, while he waited for that last blow, but it never came. Yosuke had pushed Souji away and attacked the shadows before they had a change to counter attack. Yukiko had used the last of her power to heal Souji and they made sure that Yosuke had something to get his health a bit up, but they couldn't do anything about that bruise.

"It's not your fault," Yosuke said, but he did flinch a bit when Souji took his arm and inspected the bruise.

"We have to do something about this," Souji said while he tried to make sure to avoid any spots that could hurt the brunette, "we can't leave this unattended for the night, it's going to hurt you too much."

Yosuke stayed silent while Souji went to fetch some bandage and when the silver-haired male started to wrap the bandage around the brunette's arm, Yosuke only winced sometimes. He never made a sound. Souji was worried, Yosuke was never this silent.

"Are you really alright?" he asked and he stared at Yosuke, "you're not hurt in any other place, right?"

"I'm not hurt," Yosuke answered, "but you don't have to feel guilty. This is nothing, I can hold on. I'm glad that you weren't hit after that." Souji placed the roll of bandage on the ground.

"It probably still hurts when you put too much pressure on it," he said, "be sure to sleep on your back or on your other side." Souji turned around in order to put the bandages away.

"Hey, Partner," Yosuke suddenly said, "do you think I can protect you?" Souji didn't knew what Yosuke meant by that and when he stayed silent, Yosuke continued: "I mean, the others are here too and sometimes, I just think I am just in the way while were in the way. Like I can't do anything useful when I'm there, while the others are all better in everything that we could do."

Souji suddenly understood what Yosuke was trying to say. It was true that both Chie and Kanji were better fighters, that Yukiko and Teddie were better healers, that Naoto could kill shadow's with only one shot and that Rise was the only scanner while Teddie was a fighter.

Yosuke wasn't the best in any of those things, but he was still a good fighter. He was always there to back Souji up, he was always watching, waiting to call Jiraiya and summon the persona for the strongest wind attack he had.

"Yosuke, you're not useless," Souji said and he made sure that Yosuke looked at him, "you are always with me and protecting me. I can't say that I do the same for you."

Yosuke stood up at that. He looked at Souji and said with a cold voice: "don't talk like that. You're doing the most than any of us! If you weren't here, then we wouldn't be able to solve this."

"Of course you could," Souji said and he frowned. He didn't get why Yosuke said that they would be helpless without him.

"I'm going home," Yosuke said, but when he turned around Souji grabbed his arm.

"What's the matter?" Souji asked, "why are you acting like this all of a sudden?" Yosuke yanked his arm free and stared Souji straight in the eye.

"I just can't stand it when you talk like everything is always you're fault," Yosuke said, "I can't stand it when you act like every little thing that happens has to be blamed on you, I'm not weak, so just shut up, okay?"

Souji went silent after that. He knew when Yosuke was irritated of insulted and he was the kind of guy who would think that he's weak.

"You're their hero," Yosuke said, "you're our hero!" After he said that, he paused before he smiled. It was a sad smile, like there was no happiness in it and he was just forcing it.

"You are my hero," he said. Souji stopped at that and he wanted to say something, he really did, but Yosuke had already turned and walked away, his headphones placed over his ears and his music so loud that Souji could hear it.

* * *

><p>They were in the TV world again. Souji had decided to bring Yosuke with them even after their argument last week. Yosuke seemed to have cooled down a bit, but he still looked a bit agitated. They hadn't talked to each other before this and Souji wanted them to stop fighting, maybe he could convince Yosuke by letting him play the hero he wanted to be.<p>

He didn't expect to find that every shadow that they found had a mudo or a hama spell. Souji hated those spells, the only good thing about them was that they a low change of succeeding, but when they did it could be dangerous.

Souji also appeared to be the victim of every spell that they decided to cast.

While they were running on the fifth floor of the dungeon they encountered another shadow with a mudo spell. It immediately turned to Souji and casted a spell on him. Souji watched it closely, but suddenly he was shoved away.

Souji watched with wide eyes how Yosuke took the impact of the spell and fell down, he was lucky to have endured it and Yosuke stood up. Souji immediately rushed towards him, but the other shadow knew the spell that Yosuke was the weakest to.

Souji watched in horror how Yosuke was hit with a ziodyne and fell down. Naoto immediately casted a hamaon and effectively got rid of both shadows. Souji picked an unconscious Yosuke up and used a goho-m.

They watched while Yukiko tried to heal Yosuke with everything that she had, but every hope drained away with every time she tried, every time Konohana-Sakuya came in their vision and every time that Yosuke did not response.

* * *

><p>Souji looked at Yosuke, who was still lying in the hospital bed. He never woke up since that day and it worried Souji. The doctors kept saying that Yosuke would wake up soon, but he never did.<p>

'It will be fine,' they said, 'he will wake up.' 'he is just tired and sleeping.' Yosuke couldn't be tired, not this tired. Souji took Yosuke's cold hand in his and he almost cried when he felt how lifeless it was. It was cold and white, not that the rest of Yosuke's body looked any better.

Souji almost put the headphones back around Yosuke's neck, just so that the boy would have _some_ color. Souji bit his lip as he remembered what Yosuke had told him:

"_You're their hero, you're our hero." _

He remembered the smile that Yosuke had showed him, a forced one, one without happiness like he was embarrassed and what Yosuke had said after that:

"_You're my hero."_

Souji knew what he meant and why he didn't smile as usual. Yosuke was ashamed of himself, because he wanted to be the hero. Yosuke knew that he would never be a hero, he felt as if he was the most useless one of them all.

Souji wanted to tell him that he was wrong and he had no idea why he waited so long to do that. He gripped Yosuke's hand tighter and stared at the white face of his best friend.

"You were wrong, Yosuke," Souji said, he continued when he saw that Yosuke's body didn't change: "I am not a hero. I just give orders, I am supposed to be the leader and I couldn't even protect you." He stopped again, waiting for Yosuke to interrupt him. He wants Yosuke to show him that he is still alive and not killed by one of Souji's stupid actions. Souji kissed Yosuke's hand and kept it close to his face, trying to warm it up before he spoke the last line he could say.

"You are the real hero."

* * *

><p>That night Souji went to sleep. He woke up, but knew that he was dreaming when he was in a white room. There was nothing in it, only white walls, a white floor and a white ceiling.<p>

"Glad you could make it," a familiar voice said. Souji snapped his head in the direction of the voice and saw Yosuke. The brunette was smiling at him, that was a familiar scene he hadn't seen for far too long. His face was full of color and his headphones were dangling from his neck, he was also wearing his school uniform.

"Yosuke?" Souji asked. He wanted to be sure. He knew that it was dream, but he wanted to enjoy Yosuke's company, even if it wasn't real.

"That's me," Yosuke said and Souji wanted to hug him for only talking, "I wanted to tell you something." Souji nodded as a sign for him to continue and Yosuke took a deep breath before he said: "you are my best friend, you know."

There was some silence before Souji asked: "that's it? I knew that already, even before you said it."

"I wish that was everything," Yosuke said and he looked at the ground, "you know how I always irritate and joke about Kanji, well I have no right too." Souji wanted to interrupt him, but he fell silent when Yosuke glared at him and the brunette continued: "the first few weeks I hated you. You were exactly like me, the city boy, but you were popular. You had friends right when you walked inside the classroom. I was so jealous, I wished that I was like that, but I was and I'm still only the Junes boy."

"Yosuke, that's not true," Souji said and Yosuke stared at him, "you are annoying and mean sometimes, but you don't mean it like that. Even if you have some flaws, we all have them. You are also really smart if you want to, you are brave and you are strong. You are one of the strongest of the team."

Yosuke laughed when Souji finished and he said: "man, you sure do know how to cheer someone up. I guess, that's what made me fall for you."

"What?" Souji asked after a pause. He didn't hear that right, or he was thinking in the wrong direction. Yosuke meant something friendly of course.

Those thoughts were thrown out of the window when Yosuke walked towards him and kissed him. A slow and soft kiss. Souji had closed his eyes and started to kiss back, but that was the exact moment that Yosuke stopped and looked in his eyes.

"Farewell, Partner. I am going to miss you."

* * *

><p>Souji woke up the next day. He touched his lips before he had a terrible feeling about Yosuke's last words in his dream. He stood up, dressed himself and went to the hospital.<p>

* * *

><p>"I am sorry, but we did everything we could," the doctor said. Souji sat down, as he felt that his legs would give out any minute now.<p>

Yosuke had died.

"Yosuke did wake up once," the doctor added as he knelt in front of Souji, "he insisted on writing something, even if he had no strength left, by some miracle he did manage to write it and he said you're name, so I think it is for you."

Souji took the letter from the doctor and read what was written in a shaky handwriting. The piece of paper fell out of his hands and he buried his face in his hands as he cried, ignoring the doctor's comforts as he yelled that he wanted Yosuke back.

"Give him back! I want him to say that I feel the same! I want to see him!" that was one of the few moments that Souji lost all of his composure and started screaming. He screamed things that could never happen, nobody could bring Yosuke back.

The paper lay on the ground, visitors, doctors and nurses almost stepped on it the whole time, but Souji picked it up and watched as his tears stained the white paper and the words written on it.

_I love you._

**Author's note: I made myself sad while writing this. Oh well… I'll cheer up when I listen to happy songs! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you again, I hope this year.**


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